The Business of Revenge Chapter 2
by tickles da clown
Summary: Lokaal finally feels insanity totally grip him for the first time.


Chapter 2: Whiterun

After my drop, I struggled to my feet. After shouting to Ainamo that I was alright, I looked forward. I was in a tunnel lined with stone architecture like before I had fallen, but there were black coffins strewn about. It was dark, but I could see light at the end of it. I glanced behind me and saw nothing but a slab of stone. I circumvented the monster's corpse and continued through the Barrow.

As I was walking, I held my hand up to my nose and felt it before wincing as a terrible pain lanced through my face. Tears sprang to my eyes. I removed the bruise with magic, but I had never studied the school of Restoration magics enough to learn how to repair bone. I paused and snapped the bridge back into its place. The pain made me cry out a bit, but it subsided mostly soon enough from the spell.

I continued my trek, the light growing brighter and brighter. I had walked for around an entire hour when I emerged from the tunnel to find a beautiful and surprising sight. A crack in the ceiling forty feet up was where the light was coming through. There was also water pouring from it. The water fell into a small pool on a raised platform on the left. The water fell from it and ran across the room to my right, where it emptied out into a crack in the ground. There was a small bridge spanning the flow of the water.

On a raised dais was one of the strangest things I had seen up to that point. There was a massive, curved, black wall with what looked like scratch marks on it. Next to it was one of the black coffins, but this one was larger than the others. Next to it was an engraved chest. The platform had the light shining on it most directly from the hole in the ceiling.

I approached the chest, wanting the valuables indubitably interred inside, when the coffin next to be burst open with a crash. My head snapped towards it as a corpse with glowing blue eyes stepped out. The skin was shriveled, the teeth shown as it snarled at me nearly decomposed completely. Its armor looked just as strong as the day it was made, though. Its sword was black and hung all the way down its back. The sword had a blue tint from enchantments. I suddenly felt afraid that I was going to die. It laughed a deep throaty chuckle as if it knew that I was frightened.

It lowered its horned helmet and charged at me, its sword clutched in a skilled position. I summoned a sword of my own, and blocked the monster's sword just as it came swinging down at my head. I felt a blast of cold on my face while my arm jolted from the parry. My sword didn't stay there for long because my enemy's sword had changed positions and was now coming sideways at my ribs. I was suddenly thankful for the thousand septims I thought I had wasted learning how to fence in my youth.

It swung the massive blade again, and I leapt backwards out of the way. The monster was thrown out to balance, and I swung my summoned daedric sword, which bit down into the exposed waist. My opponent jerked back upwards and attempted to bring its great sword up into my gut, not reacting to the blow at all. I swung myself out of the way, and a blast of cold air flew up where I was previously. I removed my sword and stabbed the monster through its neck entirely, but the beast did not seem to notice.

It lurched its head to the side and ripped my sword out of my hand. The sword remained in its neck until it dispelled from being away from its caster for too long. I clenched my hand to summon another sword, but I couldn't find the magicka to do it. I yanked the knife out of my belt and dodged again as my adversary swung another time. I was breathing heavily, but the bastard didn't seem to tire at all.

I thrust the knife into where I thought its heart would be, but it skittered off of its plate and into its armpit. The beast took another swing at me, and I stepped back again. I swayed backwards after stepping into air. I hadn't noticed, but our dance of death had taken us to the edge of the pool. I squatted and pulled myself forward with the monster's rocksteady leg. I stumbled back upwards, and my enemy swung at me, and would have taken my head off had I not ducked down and buried my shoulder into its abdomen. I expected to lift it off of its feet while I pushed against it, practically running in place. I pulled myself out of the stance. I staggered backwards when it kicked my chest with surprised speed. As I was stumbling, I saw the monster rear backwards for another strike when an arrow sprouted from its wrist. I expected it to follow through on its attack, but instead, the monster shrieked and dropped the sword. I watched in amazement as the flesh began to burn and melt away when another arrow sprouted from its back. It shrieked louder and at a higher pitch.

More arrows began to strike it, and the monster fell to its knees. One struck through its helmet into its skull, and it fell silent. I wasn't able to see who was firing the arrows because I was too entranced in watching my toughest adversary so far fall. After all the flesh had fallen away from its hand, the arrow clattered to the ground and I picked it up to examine it. It was tipped in silver, of course.

"I'll take that." I heard Ainamo say as she plucked the arrow from my loos I was dumbstruck. How could she have hit the beast's wrist from such a distance?

"How did you do that?" I asked her.

"What?"

"Hit that exact spot?"

"I've got a real nice bow." I took a look at it. It was glowing green, the mark of an archery enhancing enchantment.

"Where did you get the silver tipped arrows?"

"From Arvel."

"Who's he?"

"That Dunmer that was trapped in the spider's web. He also had this claw that let me get through the last door to find you." The girl put the bow back into it's quiver before taking out a skeletal claw from inside the folds of her furs. The claw was made of gold, so I snatched it from her hand.

"What was that?" she asked.

"This claw was the main reason that I came here. I was paid to wipe out your bandit clan and return this claw to its rightful owner. I'm going to go and check out that wall over there." I said while walking to the massive black wall with the scratches on it. "I wonder if this is some kind of script." I said after a minute of inspection.

"Well, yeah. Do you not know how to read?" Ainamo asked me in an indignant tone.

"I know how to read. This is just some random scratches, it looks like. But imagine if someone could actually read this."

"I can read it." I looked at her with a dumbstruck face.

"How?"

"Its words."

"What does it say, then?"

"It says 'Here lies The Guardian, keeper of the Dragonstone and a Force of eternal rage and darkness'. Force is written all weird though, it seems like it's glowing." I looked at her with a curious expression as she walked towards the wall. Suddenly, a swirling light flew out of the wall and encircled Ainamo. She screamed in surprise, but she didn't seem hurt. My eyes widened, I had never thought that anything like this existed in Skyrim.

"Do you know what that was?" Ainamo asked me. I assumed she might, me being the scholarly mage that I am.

"No. I don't."

"Do you know what the Dragonstone that was mentioned in the inscription is?"

"I'm fairly certain that there was some stone in the bottom of the coffin that the Guardian." Without another word, we walked over to the empty coffin. Sure enough, inside was a half inch thick stone tablet, about three feet across. I lifted it out with a grunt and placed it on the edge of the coffin. It looked like it was a map of Skyrim, but rudimentary and with no borders. There were also what looked like the strange marking I had seen earlier, but scattered at random. I pointed at one and said, "What does that say?"

"Sahloknir."

"I wonder what that means." I said.

"It sounds like a name. It sounded like the things that the draugr was saying. There's a wizard in Dragonsreach, in Whiterun. He's fascinated with the things in these kinds of ancient barrows. I think we should take it to him, find out what this word means." She said. I assumed she meant the Guardian by saying draugr. She was native to here, she must have known about the things here.

"I just thought that the thing was growling."

"I understood it perfectly." Of course she did.

"I'm not even going to ask what it was saying. Probably something vulgar. I'm going to go and check that chest for anything." I walked over to the large chest next to the coffin. I crouched and tried the latch and, mercifully, it was unlocked. I crouched there with my mouth agape for a moment looking at the bounty within. Inside was a pouch spilling over with jewelry. Circlets, necklaces, rings, all manner of silver, gold, jade, ivory and onyx to only name a few. On the other side of the box was a steel sword that glowed purple with the etchings of the daedric language. The daedric runes said something about electrocuting. I took it out to find a sheath made from ivory, with etchings of ruin and construction. The blade was perfectly balanced. There were some etchings of both modern runes and the scratches of the mysterious language that Ainamo apparently knew. I placed the sword in it and presented the sword to Ainamo, who was still poring over the Dragonstone.

"Do you have any idea what these scratches on this scabbard mean?" I asked the girl. She turned around and took it from my hands before looking at it more closely.

"It says, 'This is the Sword of Lightning Bolts. It has saved the Guardian many times in life. Swing with the force of a wingbeat and see the fury of the sky erupt from the tip.' Where did you get this thing?" I simply pointed at the chest that it had come out of. She walked over to the open chest briskly after handing the sword back to me. I slid the sword through the belt on my furs and tightened it. She squealed in surprise at the pouch of jewelry inside. She crouched and stood up again with a golden circlet that had a large emerald embedded in the center and smaller ones spreading out. "Now I look a proper princess." She said, but I barely heard it before I was lost in memory again.

x

I rode in a carriage about the Imperial City to the manor that my soon to be in laws lived at where I was to be married. I tried to read a book, but I could not focus on anything but anticipation. I got off at the front entrance to a huge manor, nearly a castle, made from white washed stone. The front entrance was massive, and it took several people to open it. I had never imagined that I would ever see the inside of a building of such grandeur a few years ago. The inside was massive, with a feasting table at the far end. I opened to many different rooms, either through doors or arches. There were nine arches at the far end, through each a shrine to one of the nine divines. Each one was practically a temple.

I crossed the hall to Mara's shrine, the goddess of love and compassion. Inside was the great statue at the end of a short aisle, surrounded by pews for weddings such as the one that would occur later on that day. I found myself surveying like at area before a battle, and forced myself to relax. I knelt at the cross inscribed in an ornate circle with the beautiful face of Mara and began to pray.

"Oh Mara, goddess of love and compassion, grant me the strength to be faithful to my wife. Grant me the love to please her and take care of her. Grant me the compassion and empathy to comfort her in times of struggle and strife." I couldn't think of anything else to say, but it didn't seem like enough. I kissed the face in the center of the cross and stood awkwardly. I fished out a few septims from the coin purse around my neck and placed them on the counter before the shrine before tucking the purse back beneath the collar of my tunic.

I turned and sat in one of the pews on the front row to wait to the events to come. I sat there thinking for a few minutes before I heard chattering behind me.

"What a beautiful day it is for a wedding." One definitively male voice said.

"Indeed. The sun shines beautifully and the temperature is perfect as not to be cold and not so hot as to stain your finery. And what a beautiful couple. You should have seen them before, so happy and laughing. And not even drunk!" Another man chuckled.

"Just to think, in a few years, they may be at each other's throats over the most trivial things." The woman sounded depressed.

"Now, that's not something to say on their wedding day! Now, in a few years maybe..." The second man said. I tried to ignore their bantering, but I couldn't help but wonder if they were right. Of course, we wouldn't last a month together after marriage. I tried to push the thought out of my mind as I stood up to greet the first guests of the day.

More guests began to flood in after that first trio. I gave up on trying to learn each individual's name and simply engaged in small talk. Most of the talk was of the weather and wanting to bless the marriage. Offerings at the shrine of Mara began to build up until there was a pile. I mingled among the guests for around an hour until the priest showed up and told us to quiet down as we await the arrival of the bride.

I approached the shrine with the priest in his orange hooded robes. He was a short Imperial with the trademark black hair of the race combed straight back. I stood at the shrine and waited for perhaps five minutes while the chatter of the guests slowly faded. A short fanfare of trumpets announced the arrival of Eiord.

She had her blonde hair tied into a braid that hung down scarcely past the base of her neck with a few flowers tied in. She clutched a bouquet of red, white, and purple flowers close to her chest. She was wearing a beautiful white dress that hugged her figure down to her waist, where it grew into the bridal train. The dress was strapless and began only slightly above her breasts. Atop her head was a beautiful golden circlet with a large emerald set in the center of her forehead where the crown sat upon her perfect face.

She walked up the aisle, a perfect moment that will forever be embedded into my memory. I waited endlessly for her to arrive at the shrine. When she did arrive and the priest began to speak, I looked into her eyes and she looked into mine. When we said "I do, now and forever." we both knew that it was true.

x

I returned to the present when Ainamo slapped me. She hadn't gently, either. "What was that?" She asked me with a panicked voice and wild eyes.

"I'm sorry, I was thinking."

"Yeah, but you didn't respond when I was shouting at you. Is there something wrong with you?"

"I don't know. Maybe. I think that I might be losing my mind." She looked at me like I was already mad.

"Remember outside?" She asked. I nodded. "Yeah, the same thing happened, but I got you back with a shout. Now, it's taking me slapping you. What's going on in those moments?"

"I'm not exactly sure. It's like my mind is forcibly reminding me of something from my past that's resembling something from the present." After saying that, I really felt insane.

"That doesn't really make you seem, I don't know, sane. It really makes you sound quite mad, aside from the fact that you don't respond to anyone during those... episodes and that your eyes glaze over." She announced, and I thought that she may be right. "What do you think about when those episodes happen?" She asked me.

"Uh, it's just a momentary mind numbing flashback. Let's just leave it at that." Ainamo sighed and picked up the bag of jewels and slung it over her shoulder. I took the Dragonstone and followed her as she began to limp away. We went through many winding stone corridors lit with ancient braziers. Periodically, there were bodies of the draugr. I told Ainamo what I was doing there and how I had come to Skyrim since I figured I would be taking care of her. After all, the girl was only thirteen, and I didn't want her running off with more bandits.

We eventually came upon a large chamber, which Ainamo told me was just before the chamber with the spider. The dark elf's body was lying on the ground. He had died from what looked like an axe wound to the head. I saw a pair of draugr lying next to him which had died from blows to the head from the rusty iron sword the bandit had dropped. There was one more draugr lying nearly headless from a blow that Ainamo told me she had dealt.

The next chamber over was the chamber in which I had battled the spider with Ainamo. We carefully skirted the chasm. I nearly fell in again when I stumbled over a bit of spider droppings. It would have usually been no problem, but the stone was quite weighty and threw me off balance. We got around it though.

From then on it was easy goings through the rest of the barrow. Ainamo averted her eyes at the corpses of her destroyed bandit troupe. I stared at them with contempt. In fact, I moved a little more slowly, though that might have been the Dragonstone. It was a little past noon when we got out. I was thinking about what atrocities these bandits had committed. Surely they must have deserved to have been destroyed, but I didn't ponder it as much as Ainamo must have since I was a veteran sellsword. I told her it helped not to think about it as much, but she simply spat on one of the corpses as we walked down the steps leading to the barrow.

We must have been a sight to see walking into Riverwood, all in furs and lugging along valuables and a huge etched stone. My mind wasn't on my appearance, however, it was on the general store where my injured friend was holed up. I knocked on the door, and Camilla immediately answered. The look on her face was one of surprise and relief.

"Camilla, has a priest or priestess shown up yet?" I asked the woman.

"Uh, yes. She's upstairs with Lucretia now. Who's your friend?"

"My name is Ainamo. I'll tell you the details of how we met inside, if you would allow us in." Camilla opened the door further to invite us in. Ainamo and I entered. Camilla was eying the sack of jewels the entire time as I put the Dragonstone on the table and Ainamo did the same with her jewelry while telling Camilla what had happened.

I ventured upstairs and found Lucretia lying on the bed naked with her armor lying in a heap beside her. The stench was quite impressive. There was a priest of Kynareth in brown robes. standing over her and murmuring while a golden light emanated from her hands. I averted my eyes respectfully and blushed a little.

"Who''s there?" The priestess asked without taking her eyes off of her quarry.

"I'm Lucretia's friend, Lokaal. If you want, I'll go back downstairs." I heard Lucretia cry out in pain. The priestess told her to lie still. "What was that?" I asked.

"She was trying to get a look at you is all. Come back when I'm done."

"When will that be?"

"A few hours. Don't want her to scar now do we?" The priestess asked rhetorically.

"Okay. I'll be back in a little while." I left the room after the conversation. I entered the main room below to find Lucan and Camilla sitting on one side of the bloodstained table and Ainamo leaning forward on the other side so that her bow wouldn't hit the chair. Ainamo was getting on to the bit in the story where I had fought the spider. I pulled out a chair next to Ainamo, and the others gave me a glance of recognition before turning their heads back to my friend and listening to her exaggerated tale of me and the great spider.

The tale after my battle with the giant spider frightened me. Ainamo had cut Arvel loose, and the bandit immediately took off into a group of draugr. They attacked him, and he defeated two of them before one came from behind him and planted its axe in his head. Arvel had killed two of the draugr with head wounds, so Ainamo followed suit on the one that had killed him. She saw the golden claw at first then, and took it from him because it was valuable. I took it out at that point in the story and handed it to Lucan, who had a look of gratitude cross his face. She continued through the barrow, and found a chest with the bow with an enchantment that made Ainamo more accurate and the silver arrows. After she had taken her bounty in that room, she continued into a room with three more draugr. Arvel wasn't there to distract them, so she was in trouble.

Ainamo backtracked a little so they came in a line, since they were in different spots in the room. She dealt with the first one, a draugr with an axe, easily. The next monster had a shield, and dealt her a blow on her leg that wasn't serious before she put a sword in its head. The sword was stuck, so she drew out her bow and planted an arrow in the eye of the last draugr. She had never been very good with a bow, so it was then that she learned that the bow was enchanted.

There was a hall ahead, but axes were swinging from both sides. She waited until they were all in the middle at once to give herself the best chance of getting through before she ran through unscathed. She noticed a chain on the wall and pulled it. To her surprise, the axes hung up in the wall slots from whence they had first dropped.

From there it was mostly a chamber with draugr until she came upon a door that she described in great detail. It was an ornate slab of stone with ancient nordic swirls. There was a half circle in the middle of it created by three rings wrapped around a golden circle in the middle. There were markings on the door that she recalled seeing on the claw. She took it out again and looked at it and looked at the door again. She grabbed one of the markings on the door, and the ring was able to move! She moved it until another marking appeared, one that matched the markings on the claw. She did it with the two other ones, until she got to the golden one. It had three dents in it, and was a full circle. She tried to turn it, and it didn't work. She noticed that there was three nails on the claw, and in curiosity, tried to put the nails in the dents. It fit, and she tried to turn it with the claw, which worked. After she removed the claw, the door sank into the ground.

From there, she went through the hall that I had gone through too, with the spider's corpse. Ainamo saw me duelling with the draugr, and from there it was memory for me. When the girl finished her story, my stomach growled, and I realized I hadn't eaten at all that day. The siblings across the table had an astonished look on their faces. "Lucan, can I have some food?" I asked the man. "Yeah, yeah." he said dismissively. "Ainamo, can you tell us about the draugr again?" He asked, and Ainamo obliged in great detail.

I went around behind the counter that Lucan did business at and found a half loaf of bread and a wedge of goat cheese, which I proceeded to devour and wash down with some mead that I watered down. The mead in Skyrim was notorious for being extremely strong. I finished my meal and Ainamo came over and joined me in raiding the Valerius's food stores. Ten minutes later, I was sitting at the table again and Ainamo was sitting next to me, both of us bloated. "Ahem." Lucan grunted with his hand out for payment. I simply tossed him a silver necklace from the sack. He nodded and walked to a bookshelf to read a book. Camilla asked me to tell her of how I went through the barrow. I regaled her with the story while waiting for Lucretia's treatment to be finished.

In the middle of my duel with the draugr, the priestess came down and announced to the room that Lucretia's treatment was finished. I finished the tale of the duel hurriedly before excusing myself and going upstairs with Ainamo on my tail.

Lucretia had just finished buckling on her breastplate when Ainamo and I arrived. She already had the rent apart and bloodstained metal skirt on. "Hey, Lucretia. This is my, er, friend, Ainamo." I said, reluctant to call her so since I had only met her that morning. Lucretia nodded understanding. We stood there in awkward silence for a moment before I asked Lucretia how well the treatment went.

"Well..." She said before hiking up her skirt so that I could see that her wound had vanished completely. "The priests of Kynareth are good at what they do. And with this civil war going on, they sure have gotten a lot of practice."

"So, what are you going to do now?" I asked the Imperial.

"I suppose I'll head to the Imperial headquarters in Solitude and find out what to do from there, since my legion from Helgen is gone." Lucretia announced while putting on her helmet. "So, what did you do while I was recovering?"

"I fetched something for Lucan since he was helping you and he asked me. On the way, I met Ainamo."

"Alright. I suppose I should get some food for the journey, huh?"

"Yeah. I suppose so. Ainamo and I are going to head to Whiterun to talk to the court wizard. You could ride a carriage to Solitude from there."

"I'll come with you. You'll need a bodyguard, after all. The bandits are getting braver and more common with this war going on." Lucretia said.

"Yeah. Ainamo and I know firsthand." I replied with a glance to Ainamo.

"Hey, Lokaal, d'you think we should get going?" Ainamo asked me.

"If you want to, then we can go. Are you ready to go, Lucretia?" I asked after turning towards the woman.

"I suppose it's alright if we leave now." She told me. We descended the stairs and told Lucan and Camilla that we were going to leave.

"Lucan, do you have a knapsack I can buy?" I asked the Imperial man.

"Yeah, one moment." He said to me. He dug around behind his counter for a moment before coming up with a beige knapsack that he tossed to me. It was empty. I put some coins on his counter as payment. I undid the clasp that kept the flap down and slid the Dragonstone into it before doing the clasp back up and slinging it over one shoulder. I could feel the cloth stretching, but the pack had been made sturdily.

"Hey, before we go, what's the way to Whiterun?"

"Just go north on the road. Once you get past the waterfall, you'll see Whiterun on its hill." I thanked him and we bid the Valeriuses farewell before leaving. We crossed a narrow stream on the way north, and I saw the split in the road where I had gone to Bleak Falls Barrow. I could see some carrion birds further up, probably feeding on the corpses of the bandits. Our party continued north, and sure enough, at the top of the waterfall, we spotted Whiterun a few miles further on. The palace looked beautiful from back there, and the lower districts that would seem impressive anywhere else were mundane compared to it.

We continued along the winding road down the ridge past a meadery and a few farms. Before the drawbridge were stables with a small assortment of horses. Lucretia muttered something about losing her own mare a while back. My shoulders were getting increasingly sore, and Lucretia apparently grew tired of my whining, so she simply took the pack and wore herself. To my surprise, she didn't even slouch under the weight, as I had. The woman must be a rock. It really gave me respect for legionnaires.

We passed under the windswept and crumbling walls until we arrived at the gate. The gate guard's eyes widened impressively at the sack of jewels that Ainamo was carrying. He practically ran towards us as he said, "No entrance to the city with the dragons about. State your business."

"How is barring the gate going to help with the dragon issue?" I asked skeptically.

He shuffled a bit in his Whiterun yellow and boiled leather covering chainmail before saying, "Well, uh, most people have to pay a tax to help with defenses for the dragons unless they have to see a priest of Kynareth." He nodded vigorously, and Lucretia and I had skeptical and dumbfounded looks. "So, just hand over the jewels, and you can come in."

Lucretia snarled and in a flash put the tip of her sword at the man's throat. "If you don't stop trying to rob us, it'll be you needing a priest of Arkay."

To my surprise, the guard simply laughed. "And bring the whole guard upon you? I think not." He said. Lucretia lowered her blade and sighed simultaneously.

I thought for a moment before saying to him, "I have news from Helgen. If you don't let me in, then the jarl remain uninformed. My Imperial friend here is another survivor."

He thought for a moment before saying, "Alright, the Breton and the Imperial can come in, but the Nord has to pay the tax."

I immediately replied, "If she doesn't come in, then none of us do," pointing at Ainamo. The guard grumbled a bit before calling to the other guards to let us in. There was muffled grunting from the iron studded wooden gate, and it pulled open. Ainamo, Lucretia, and I walked in, and I hadn't felt overwhelmed by a city for weeks since I left the Imperial City.

The houses were more straw and wood rather than the stone buildings of Cyrodiil. Nevertheless, Whiterun was a true city, the first one I had seen in weeks. There was a smith to my right, and the woman that I assumed was the master of it was arguing with some blond man in Imperial fatigues. We continued down the street, and I spotted the palace again through a gap between buildings. We continued along the paved stone up a hill past stands of merchants hawking their wares. Up another hill there was a plaza, with a burnt and dying white tree in the middle. We continued past a priest shouting about Talos.

We ventured up a long flight of stairs to reach the massive wooden palace. We crossed a bridge spanning across a small pool to the massive wooden doors. We entered to a massive great hall, with a hundred foot high ceiling that was dimly lit by braziers, no windows to be seen. Stairs ahead led to a feast table, beyond which there was a throne that a blond nord in rich robes sat upon. He was arguing with a short, balding, Imperial man who was clad in the same robes, and a Dark Elf woman with the dark greenish skin, red hair, and slanted eyes of the race. The woman was wearing boiled leather and an ornate steel sword on her hip.

The jarl was a bit overweight, and the Imperial man more so. The man on the throne was a pointed chin and a beard that looked like he had plucked it off a goat. He wore a gold and moonstone circlet, while the man standing beside him was dark haired and clean shaven. Their faces showed signs of being overweight as well as their pooching bellies, and the man in the throne had some wrinkles. The Dark Elf, however, was youthful looking and quite fit. She wore a bit of paint that made it seem as though her eyes were bleeding. Her eyes were unnervingly stern, but beautiful in a way. The jawline of her face lent her a more masculine appearance.

The Dark Elf looked over at us and scowled. She pardoned herself from the conversation for a moment to draw her sword and stomp her way over to where we were standing.

"What are you doing here? The jarl is not to be disturbed." She told us.

"We only wanted to see the court wizard to ask him some things. You see, we found this stone, and were wondering what he could make of it." Ainamo answered.

"Well, Farengar is in his laboratory, to your right." The Elf said while pointing. She resumed her post at the side of the jarl and we ventured to the right where the wall opened and a desk covered in scrolls, potions, gems and a map sat. A table sat in the back, carved with glowing daedric runes with a frighteningly human skull on the back, though it had horns. The man we had come to see was leaning on his desk, poring over the map when Lucretia tapped his shoulder.

The man in hooded blue robes looked up and asked, rather irritatedly, "What do you want? It had better be something damn important." Lucretia simply slid out the Dragonstone and placed it on the map. "By the Divines." Farengar murmured while looking at the stone. "I've been needing this. Do you know what you've found?" He asked, looking up at us.

"A list of names?" Ainamo inquired.

"How did you know about them, about the names?" Farengar asked the girl. Ainamo told the story of how we journeyed through Bleak Falls Barrow again, though leaving out the part where she met me. "I'm not even going to ask how you know the dragon language. What matters is you know it, so you're going to help me decipher with this stone. I'm pretty sure what it is, but what you tell me will confirm it or disprove it." Farengar announced. Ainamo set down the bag of jewelry on the table and set to work with the wizard.

Lucretia and I stood around for a few minutes whilst Farengar wrote on a piece of parchment with a charcoal what Ainamo was saying. He would point to a series of scratches and Ainamo would decipher it. We continued watching until Farengar mentioned that it might take a while to transcribe. Farengar referred us to the inn if we wanted to entertain ourselves, since it was likely to take a few hours.

We departed the palace and ventured down to the merchant's plaza. Across the plaza was a large structure, with a steep roof with curls at the tips as many of the major buildings did in Whiterun. The sign in front of it announced it as the Bannered Mare. There was a short flight of stone steps leading to the small wooden door at the front of the building.

Inside was a fire pit as the centerpiece with benches on either side. At the far end of the room was a pair of tables that people were sitting at while eating and chatting. Lucretia and I took a seat next to each other on a bench beside the fire pit. The barmaid shouted at a redguard woman named Saadia to serve us, who came over to us. Lucretia bought a bottle of wine and a heel of bread. Saadia ran off to a side room and fetched the food for us.

The bard Mikael struck up some local song called Ragnar the Red, about some redguard who had come to Whiterun from Rorikstead in the west to tell stories and drink mead. Some shieldmaiden named Matilda killed him because "You talk and you lie and you drink all our mead now I think it's high time you lie down and bleed." which really didn't seem like much of a provocation to me. The man sitting across from me, named Sinmir, was wearing a full suit of armor, as though he expected an attack in the middle of the city.

I remarked on Matilda's temper and he called me a "Damn milk drinker". I, being in the partially insane state that I was, said to him, "One hundred septims says I can knock your ass to the ground."

"Let's get started." He said. "No weapons, no magic, just fists." Sinmir said while taking off his gauntlets and standing up. He took his helmet off and put up his hands. He walked around the fire pit while I stood up and put up my hands. The group around us started wagering on who would win while sinmir took the first swing. It struck my chin directly and I could feel a bruise forming, but the wine I had drunk with Lucretia dulled the pain.

I stumbled backwards, but I didn't fall over. I threw a punch at my adversary and he ducked beneath it. Before he stood back up, I elbowed him in the top of the head. He fell flat on his face. His scalp was bleeding a bit from where I had hit him. "Thank you for the money." I said to him while holding out my hand. The larger man groaned and stood up before taking a coin purse off of the bench from where he had left it. Instead of handing me the money, he pelted me in the forehead with the purse.

While I stumbled backwards, he ripped his battle axe off of the bench where he had left it. "I will not have a milk drinker beating me!" the stubborn Nord said. He hefted the axe over his head in order to split my skull. I sent a fuller charge of electricity than usual towards him do to being slightly drunk and panicking. The bolt struck him in the center of the chest. He dropped the axe and was sent flying into the bar, breaking the front. He was sitting in the hole in the counter, his head flopped to the side with a charred hole in his breastplate. I could see his ribs poking through his charred flesh.

People started shouting for the guards, for a priest. I sat on the bench and grabbed the bottle of wine from where Lucretia had dropped it when Sinmir grabbed his axe. By the time I had killed him, Lucretia was standing up with her blade bared. Lucretia slid her blade back into its sheath and told me that she was going to go fetch the guard and tell them what had happened. I had a bottle at my lips already. I had dealt with killing by drinking, though I broke the habit a few years ago. I only drank a bit more wine before a pair of guards burst through the door with Lucretia. One of them ripped off his helmet to vomit at the sight of Sinmir's body.

The other spoke to me. "How did this happen?" She said to me, after loosening her blade in its sheath a bit. I told her the story, and she glanced at the body before saying, "That's the same song she sang. It looks like magic too." She sent the guard that had been sick to fetch the priest of Arkay. I went with him to explain what had happened.

The guard and I walked through the streets to an alleyway where the priest was. I told him the situation, and he left the shrine to come with us. We retraced our steps to the inn. The female guard told me that I should inform the captain of the guard of what had happened. She told me that he was in the barracks next to the gate. I was gone in an instant.

I threaded my way through the crowds in the merchant's plaza down the streets to the barracks at the gate. Inside was a few guards, but they would mostly be on watch or at home. I asked one where the commander was, and he referred me to an Imperial man without a helmet at the far end of the room. I told the commander what had happened, and he didn't say anything against me because, "Well, it doesn't sound like it's your fault. It's good that you told me this, though." The commander said to me.

I stepped outside the barracks and walked more leisurely back to the Bannered Mare. Someone told me that the barmaid had gone outside to be sick, and I grabbed Sinmir's coin purse to give to her in order to cover the damages. There was already a pool of bile when I found her behind the inn. When she looked up and saw me, she vomited again before starting to run. I called for her to wait.

To my surprise, she actually did, though she looked at me apprehensively. "I just wanted to pay for the damages to your inn." I told her while holding out the coin purse. I continued walking towards her, and she backed away a bit. "Just stop." I told her. She kept moving backwards. It made me a bit angry. "Stop, just fucking stop!" I screamed at her. She started to run. I ran after her, and she called for help, while I kept screaming at her to stop. She squeezed into an alley behind the Mare, and I saw the merchant's plaza at the end of the alleyway. I ran after her, and she started running towards the barracks.

Hulda was trying to tell the guards that I was attacking her, so I simply threw the coin purse at her. I threw a bit too hard, and it hit her in the head. Hulda fell over, unconscious, and the other citizens in the street started screaming for the guards. I was infuriated, and shouted for them to stop. When they didn't listen, I lost control, and started throwing illusion spells that were intended to calm them, but in my state I couldn't focus, so the calm spells became fear spells, which only sped them faster onward.

Their fear made me angrier, and I drew my sword in order to intinmidate them into stopping. In my rage, I forgot about the inscription, and I swung the sword as hard as I could. A crack of lightning flew out of the tip of the sword, and someone suffered the same fate as Sinmir. Guards came flooding down a hill towards me, and the fact that they were going to arrest me only made me even more angry. I threw more lightning at the guards, and a pair of them died. A few with bows arrived and began a rain of steel.

I summoned a ward, and the arrows fell at my feet with a clatter. I spotted the Dark Elf I had talked with earlier in the crowd, and she began to use lightning magic to try to kill me. It glanced off of my ward, but in my angry and unstable state, my focus was not what it usually was, and I could feel my magicka begin to wane as the ward became more inefficiant and weak. I cast one last spell to make my skin more strong, and began to run.

I burst through the gate, striking it with my tougher skin, and I could feel arrows hitting me and leaving bruises. There were more guards manning the walls and towers outside, and I cut down three more men and a woman in my escape from the city. I ran down the streets and past farms while guards pursued me for ten minutes eastward. I was running out of breath as I arrived at a bridge. spanning a quickly running river below. On the other side was another guard.

I ran towards him, and he heard me stomping across the bridge. He turned around, and I threw another bolt of lightning, though it went wide. He lifted his shield and ran towards me. I cast another bolt of lightning at him, and this time it hit his shield, which caught fire. He tossed it into the river below. I drew back for another swing of my blade, but he was close enough that the guard swung his sword. It hit me in the ribs, and I heard one break. I hunched over, and at the sight of not seeing my blood, my adversary said, "What the hell...?" While he walked back a little, surprised because I didn't die, I shoved my sword through his neck. He died choking on his own blood.

I walked further eastward, slowly, but the guards gave up as I moved closer to the border between Whiterun and Eastmarch. I stumbled into one of the caves that dotted the side of the cliff beside the river. Once inside, I sat on a rock inside and lifted my shirt to examine myself. Hunching over to look at myself hurt too much, so I uncomfortably bent my head at an extreme angle. There wasn't a piece of bone sticking out, so I assumed that it was a hairline fracture. I removed the shirt completely to relieve the pressure from the fracture. I thought for a moment on what happened, and, too exhausted from running cross country to be really upset, I only cursed Sheagorath, the God of Madness, and let sleep take me.


End file.
